England v Sri Lanka, Third Test: Day Five Review

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Matt H in Tests

Sri Lanka 184ao and 334/5 (Sangakkara 119, Samaraweera 87*, Anderson 2-81)

England 377/8d

Match Drawn

 

In a sentence

 

A defiant Sri Lanka batted impressively to negate any threat of an England victory.

 

Player of the day

 

Kumar Sangakkara. Finally the stand-in captain led from the front, scoring his first Test match hundred in England in his 18th – and possibly final – innings here. The England attack was unusually toothless and Sangakkara rarely looked troubled until he loosely drove Jimmy Anderson’s slower ball to point for 119. Rangana Herath deserves credit for a perfect job as nightwatchman, frustrating the bowlers for over an hour this morning for his 36. Thilan Samaraweera also looked more accomplished than in his previous matches in swiftly reaching 87*, looking particularly impressive against spin.

Moments of the day

 

It was only a single off Stuart Broad’s bowling, but the run that brought up the century for Sangakkara was warmly applauded and was confirmation of the match having finally slipped out of England’s grasp.  It was this innings that will be remembered as the obstacle to another victory, but none of the bowlers really performed as expected, with some odd captaincy decisions further exasperating the meagre crowd- especially the choice of Jonathan Trott to bowl a few overs which went for a total of 24 . The rain held off until tea, but the weather was ultimately the key stakeholder in the match, with only 261 overs bowled in total. Therefore this was not the day five pitch that England needed. Ultimately England won the series in a convincing manner not told by the 1-0 scoreline, but this final day highlighted that if the Sri Lankans had performed at least functionally on the last afternoon at Cardiff, then the series might have been closer, or even drawn.